


Home Alive

by dizzy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the poetry prompt:</p><p>All night I've held your hand,<br/>as if you had<br/>a fourth time faced the kingdom of the mad --<br/>its hackneyed speech, its homicidal eye --<br/>and dragged me home alive.</p><p>Robert Lowell, 'Man and Wife'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Alive

Vala's tired. She falls asleep halfway through their dinner, her head leaning against the cold stone. The spoon in her hand clangs a bit when her grip goes lax.

Cam can't hold it against her. He reaches over and takes the spoon, moves the bowl from her lap so it won't spill. He puts them both aside. He's finished his own food, always hungry by meal time, always left wanting more. For that reason he doesn't waste the rest of Vala's. He puts it aside, knowing she'll want it in the morning.

She feels like she weighs nothing when he scoops her into his arms. There's only one bed in the cell. They share it some nights, but on other nights he lets her sleep alone. Those are the times they send her back too bruised, too beaten. On those nights, he doesn't sleep at all. He sits up to watch over her, to wake her if she dreams. Her dreams are haunting but not like his. She doesn't cry out; her voice is stolen, gone. He can't save her from the reality of her imprisonment but he can pull her from those nightmares.

Today wasn't so bad. They came late for her and brought her back early. He's spent too many nights mopping up her blood and tears. That sleep even comes so readily is a relief in many ways. Her exhaustion comes from the morning spent with him trying to cobble together what she swears will work as a key to get them out. They've got a plan. It's a bad one, and he can see in her eyes that she doesn't think it will work, but they're SG-1 and SG-1 doesn't give up.

She catches his hand when he goes to pull away. "Leaving so soon?"

Her voice is barely a murmur, but there's enough humor in it to make him smile. He settles back beside her, the thin metal frame squeaking. "You know me. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am."

She rolls toward him, stretching an arm over his lap and settling her head in his thigh. "Tell me a story?"

"What kind of story do you want, princess?"

"Tell me about... tell me about that lovely heroic man from Texas," she says, smiling shutting her eyes again.

"The continuing adventures of Walker, Texas Ranger... you got it," he says. It takes him a moment to think back on episodes and find one that he hasn't already told her about. He's almost plumbed the depths of his memory. Soon, they'll move on to a new show, a new series of tales that she's never heard. She begins to drift off again almost immediately, but first her fingers reach over to find his and keep them in a loose grasp. He's realized by now that she doesn't really care what it is he's talking about as long as he's talking, as long as she knows she isn't here alone.


End file.
